


Welcome to the Party, Pal!

by poe_damerons



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: (For the most of it), Amy Santiago POV, Blood, Episode: s03e10 Yippie Kayak, F/M, Gun Violence, Gunshot Wounds, Hospitals, Hostage Situations, Hurt Jake Peralta, Major Character Injury, My first b99 fic so this may be a little ooc, Real Life Die Hard, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-25 14:52:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17727293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poe_damerons/pseuds/poe_damerons
Summary: Jake Peralta has been on the wrong end of a gun one time too many. Charles Boyle doesn't forgive himself when the trigger is finally shot, or when he steals Jake's 'John McClane Moment' from him.Or: Right in front of Jake Peralta is a criminal, holding him and many others hostage in a real-life Die Hard situation. Difference between him and the other hostages? He's a cop, staring down the barrel of the gun. His life is automatically on the line, it has to be to keep the civilians safe. What if Charles doesn't drop down from the vents, in the full spirit of John McClane - tank top and all - in time?





	Welcome to the Party, Pal!

**Author's Note:**

> All trigger warnings should be in the tags, if there's anything I missed please let me know and I'll add it asap! On another note, this is my first brooklyn nine-nine fanfiction so I acknowledge that some things may seem OOC and I apologise for such!!! Also: I have no idea how American hospitals work so apart from such minor research I just winged it in my tired ass state. 
> 
> Comments and critique are very much appreciated and I would love to see some so I can better my writing for my next fic (which is already in the works)!! Hope you enjoy!

 

* * *

* * *

   
  
All that Jake registers with the perfect antagonist - deep voice, scar adorning his cheek, absolutely perfect set up for a movie antagonist - staring him down with a gun firmly gripped in his hand, is that he was so close to having his John McClane moment. It was figuratively ripped from his hands, stopped on with big sturdy boots, and then tossed in the trash and lit on fire before his very eyes. Instead of jumping down from the vent in the all powerful moment of the protagonist seizing the situation (and in a badass way, if Jake may add), Jake woke up with the worst headache of the century. "Wow, that hurt," Jake had commented, blinking the drowsiness away, to which Gina had responded with a nonchalant nod of understanding. "Curses to the writer and director of Die Hard 6 (Featuring Jake Peralta)!". 

All that Gina registers is that Jake's antagonising the man in front of them. The man brandishing a firearm. She thinks after years of Jake being in dangerous situations like these that he'd learn how to shut the hell up. But in true Jake spirit, she resigns herself to realise, he just keeps talking. It's nervousness, Gina notes, watching the scene with concerned eyes, she can tell that much. But he's keeping the attention on himself, ensuring no civilians get hurt. There's an edge to Jake's voice when he opens his mouth again, like the idiot that he is, when he bellows: "Time for the real thing, Bill. All you gotta do is pull the trigger." ("You asked for it," the criminal states smugly, cocking his gun) and Jake responds almost immediately with: "No! No! Do-Don't actually pull the trigger I was making a Die Hard reference. God," he turns to Gina at this, "imagine my last words being a Die Hard reference? I should've stopped there. That's literally my brand!"

All that Charles registers, held back by a thread of clothing stuck in the vent, is the sound of a gunshot bouncing off the walls. His immediate train of thought is Jake, then it's Gina, but he shakes his head ( _Don't be selfish, Boyle_ , he tells himself.  _It's more than likely a civilian, they're the priority here and oh God, that includes Gina_ ). He squirms the thread loose, snaking through the vents before dropping down to the floor beneath in full spirit of John McClane - tank top and all - taking the criminal by surprise and greeting him kindly with a sprinkle of blunt force trauma to the head. He says "Yippie Kayak Other Buckets!" and a weak Jake gives him Hell for it. The next thing he knows he's at his best friends side, hands stained red and putting pressure on a wound that shouldn't exist -  _wouldn't_ exist, if he had just been quicker and had stopped fussing over that loose thread.

 

* * *

* * *

 

All that Terry registers is that his friends are in danger and he's looking at a suspension of sorts for how he treated Pembroke (Terry says he's in the trash where he belongs, Terry won't take any protest to that revelation). Terry frankly doesn't care about the latter because it was totally worth it, and when he hears the sound of a car backfiring he lifts his head assessing all possibilities until - and oh God, his heart picks up its pace and his senses are overwhelmed - he realises that it wasn't a car backfiring at all, and that three of his friends and a good number of civilians are in a hostage situation being held back by a man brandishing a gun. He barely remembers chanting "go, go, go! Assess the perimeter, cover all openings!" because everything is just so loud, but he remembers a man being wheeled out on a gurney into a nearby ambulance. He remembers it being Jake. He remembers all that, it's not a sight he'll forget anytime soon.

All that Holt registers is that he's escorting himself, Amy, and Rosa to a crime scene with about eight hostages. That Terry's Christmas family dinner was ruined and interrupted and how he has the place surrounded with snipers on roof tops and a squad covering all openings. That Keith Pembroke was hauled into the trash and he's going to have to suspend Terry for at least a week. That Amy is shaking beside him and its not just from the cold. "Everything will be fine," Holt assures a concerned Amy, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder in the current absence of her boyfriend. Holt then realises that everything is Not Fine, and the man he sees as a son is hastily being escorted into the white and blue vehicle with the nurses shouting all sorts of orders and attaching all sorts of wires to his body.  
  
All that Rosa registers is that Jake must be kicking himself for getting shot. Not because he could die, no - Jake's terrified of the idea of that of course, but that won't be what he'll be beating himself up over - but because he missed his McClane moment and, judging by the shell shocked Charles adorning a tank top (which is disgustingly covered in blood), that Boyle stole his thunder. Of course she's scared, God she's terrified, because for the love of God her best friend is dying. But she doesn't broadcast her fears, she keeps her feelings close to her chest and lets nobody - and she repeats,  _nobody -_ reach their grubby little hands and take that from her. Jake would appreciate Rosa's nonchalant stance, she decides, he doesn't want everyone to visibly worry about him and he'd be terrified if she as so much sheds a tear.

All that Amy registers is that, today especially, the cold is her constant. From the icy water of the polar swim of which she was knees deep in - bottom of her thermal coat soaked - to make Holt and Rosa aware of the hostage situation Jake had urgently messaged her with (with an unsurprising amount of excitement riddled within the texts:  _real life Die Hard situation!!!),_ to the cold clammy hands of her boyfriend riddled with wires and an oxygen mask placed uncomfortably over his mouth after she had hitched a ride in the back of the ambulance. She wants to cry and scream and cry and maybe even punch Peralta for being such an idiot in such a serious situation. But she doesn't, she keeps her cool (or what she may consider 'cool', with the other option of having a breakdown hanging thickly in the air) and doesn't let of Jake's hand. She never leaves his side, and she never lets go unless the doctors order her to give them some space to work.

(All that Hitchcock and Scully register is that they're starving and have no idea what's going on).  


* * *

* * *

 

Amy loses Jake twice.

Next thing she knows, its a third time and the doctors are having a hard time finding a pulse. They tell her bluntly its their last attempt at resuscitation and if it doesn't work he'll be declared dead.  She takes note of the time, fist clenched and knuckles in mouth until she's able to breathe again at a doctor shouting "we got a pulse!" to his colleagues and, Amy swears at the brief acknowledgement from the doctor, herself as well. Amy ignores the buzzing feeling against her leg as anxiety until the doctor, who assures her Jake is stable (for now), sits next to her comfortably and presses on whether or not she's going to answer her phone.   
  
"Oh," Amy replies, muttering an apology as she comes to her senses and angling herself away from everyone else in the ambulance. She doesn't spare a moment to see who it is, answering immediately after an audible gulp.  
  
"H'llo?" She slurs.  
"Amy. Thank God. Answer your dumb phone next time."   
  
It's Rosa, Amy detects, and not even judged by her actual voice but rather her tone and bluntness. Amy curls in on herself almost immediately, the squad didn't need to panic anymore than they already had with everything that went on today.   
  
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that."   
"Your good. Any update on Jake? I assume his dumb ass isn't dead, otherwise that would've been the first thing out of your mouth. How is he?"  
"He's...stable?" Amy looks to the second, relaxed doctor, for confirmation and she nods in assurance, "Yeah. Stable. He, I-  _we_ lost him three times, but he's okay now."   
"Good. I would've killed his ass if he died."  
  
Amy laughs at this, breathing down the phone a little too heavily - more than she would've liked, but the humour is nice. The humour of the situation is good, its exactly what she needs. Because if Jake isn't there to hand that to her, then someone else has to be. She needs another constant other than the cold today.   
  
"Yeah, God, me too. He's so...stupid sometimes. I can't believe he fully embraced Die Hard in a serious situation like this."  
"Tell me about it," Rosa smirks on her side of the phone, "but are you really surprised? Gina told me he revelled in it. Quote unquote 'zany face, partying face'."  
"Oh God, Gina- Rosa I am  _so_ sorry I didn't ask about her. I hope she's okay is-"  
"Listen, don't worry about it. You got your own shit to deal with. Gina's fine. Won't stop going on about how she never got to make a flamethrower out of hair spray and a lighter to fend the criminals off. Would've killed to see that. Kinda hot."   
"That...would certainly have been a sight. Anyway, uh, Rosa, we're pulling in. Don't know where about you are-"  
"At the lights."  
"Oh, right well, okay. Drive safely for the rest of the way? I'll ring back if there's anymore word on Jake. Then again you're like...right behind us so I'll probably just update you in the waiting room."  
"You better."  
  
She hangs up. She breathes. And she sobs.   
  
A doctor is at her side, asking her if she's okay to embrace, and it doesn't take much for Amy to nod so willingly. She's hushed by the other, rubbed soothingly on her back and in her crazed up hair and she's escorted down the ramp in haste before the gurney is pushed down itself - Jake's body strapped down but shaking at the movement and God she can't stop looking at the motionless body being rushed into emergency surgery - into hospital, a place she's visited one too many times.   
  
Amy doesn't like hospitals. 

The rest of the squad - minus Hitchcock and Scully, Terry says they went off to the Christmas stalls in the market square for some scrumptious foods - are right there with her less than five minutes later and Amy takes the chance to take everything in. 

Holt is stood despite all the empty seats, he has his back to the nearby wards and is angled somewhat away from the squad with his hands hidden behind his back. His fingers are fidgeting, that much Amy can detect, and he's incredibly stressed regarding the situation. His expression is vacant and yet Amy can somehow can read him perfectly, even the slightest twitch of muscle sends her into a flurry of panic because she doesn't want the captain to be so worked up about it - she doesn't like to see her captain so worked up about it; Terry is sat in the corner, one hand cradling a phone to his ear to alert his family of his sudden disappearance and the other rubbing up and down his thigh to alleviate his stress and anxiety.  He puts the phone down moments later and leans forward with his head in his hands.   
  
Amy shifts her head to the right of her and Rosa is sat with Gina in the corner, rubbing her thigh while Gina leans against her - nose deep in her phone. But Gina is looking up every few seconds, and Amy knows how intrigued Gina usually is by her phone and how uninterested she is to the world around her, so Amy only takes it as a sign that she's terrified because for the love of God that's her childhood best friend in surgery. Rosa makes no movement to broadcast how anxious she is regarding the situation, but Amy is aware nonetheless. Amy knows, she always does.   
  
Then she looks to her feet, which she huddles on the waiting room chair as she cradles her legs and avoids despite all temptation to rock back and forth, to see Charles face-first on the cold floor draped with an orange shock blanket. He's taking this the worst out of everyone, she decides, but she whispers comfortingly to him. "It wasn't your fault Boyle, I don't think the situation would've changed regardless of how fast you got there." Rosa looks over, her gaze solemn, but the words out of her mouth are "Yeah. Not too eavesdrop or anything, but Santiago is right. Jake was a stupid idiot." 

(Charles resigns to sitting up, head against one of the waiting room chairs as he fixes the shock blanket around his shoulders, and saying "Yeah, you're right" in response to everything Amy and Rosa just said. But Amy knows he doesn't mean that, because Charles would never say that about Jake. He still blames himself.)  
  
She finishes her assessment of the squad around her because her gaze focuses on a nurse heading towards them - draped in the blue scrubs she is so used to seeing. But the nurse walks with purpose, clipboard hanging between her chest and crossed arms and she greets the squad with a smile. At just the mere sight of her, she can feel the collective amount of stress and anxiety from everyone in the waiting room lay ease.   
  
"Those here for Detective Jake Peralta, yes?"  
  
Amy is the one who nods, eyebrows raised to press her to go on.  
  
"You'll be happy to know the surgery was a success. We encountered some difficulties throughout, but Peralta is a fighter I can tell you that. He suffered from a Hemothorax mid-surgery and we had to use a tube to drain all the blood but that was perhaps the biggest concern of ours as well as the transfusion practice we had to endu-"  
  
Holt raises his hand and the nurse immediately seals her lips close at the interruption. "Please," Holt begins roughly, "spare us the details for now." Charles nods vigorously in agreement, and Amy can see his face contort in disgust at all the details the nurse laid out for them, but it's Rosa who speaks up afterwards (arm now draped over Gina's shoulders) and queries when they'll be able to see him. Trust her to get straight to the point.   
  
"Well," the nurse begins again, albeit shaky, "you'll be pleased to know that Detective Peralta is breathing on his own after the surgical success. He's resting, but you're free to take a seat in his assigned ward as long as it's one at a time as not to overwhelm him."  
  
They all nod thanks in canon timing, before pushing Amy to follow the nurse who escorts her pleasantly to where Jake is resting. She nods and murmurs a thanks, sitting in the blue seat next to Jake's hospital cot and pulls out her phone.

 **NINE-NINE!** _(You,_ _Charles Boyle, Gina Linetti, Jake Peralta, and three others are in this conversation)_  
  
**Santiago:** Hey everyone, Jake is in Ward x-x-x-x. He's still resting, hopefully might stir soon. I'll try my best not to hog all the visiting hours! X  
**Boyle:** Yeah please don't, I kinda really want to badly see Jake. You hog all of it and you're dead to me.  
**Diaz:** Don't listen to Boyle, he's kidding. And he's an idiot. Take all the time you need and tell that loser to wake up soon.  
**Jeffords:** Thanks for letting us know Amy!  
**Holt:** Yes, thank you Santiago for making the squad aware of Jake's current situation and placement. As Diaz said, take all the time you need. Contact us with any updates - Sincerely, Raymond Holt. 

Amy smiles at the texts, assumes due to the lack of involvement by Gina that she's asleep, and sends them a collective thank you text before shutting it off and placing the mobile device aside. She's pleased she sent that "hopefully might stir soon" message, because - and its as if she prayed to the Lord - his eyelids start to flutter just as much as the heart in her chest. Soon enough he's coughing drily, but it's nothing to call the nurse for as it subsides almost immediately. She does want to hit him, however, at the first words - albeit slurred - that escape his lips:  
  
"Real life Die Hard situation and I screwed it up!"  
  
Amy smirks and grabs his hand almost immediately after those first words roll off his tongue.

"I'm sure John McClane gets shot-"   
"- A lot. Like. A lot a lot."   
"Right. A lot. You still finished off with a McClane Moment," Amy comforts. Jake's high on prescribed drugs anyway, he probably won't remember this conversation give or take a few hours.  
"Except John McClane, like the absolute legend that he is, trudged through it like a champ! And here I was bleeding out, like. Bleeding out a lot it was kinda sc'ry."  
  
Amy just smiles, she's not going to be able to change his mind on that side of the argument. At least not right now when he's high on drugs, half asleep, and slurring his words.   
  
"But," she whispers softly, lifting a hand to draw the curls away from his forehead, "you saved a lot of people there tonight. Put all of the attention on yourself. I think McClane would appreciate that, call you a," she hesitates trying to get the character down (because of course she still knows next to nothing about the movie), "an American hero. The hero that people want and need and-"  
  
Amy doesn't finish her sentence. Because soon enough, she hears light snores from Jake's bed, and she leaves him with a soft kiss to the forehead (updating the group chat that he's back asleep but that she's on her way down and someone else can spend time with Jake - the humoured backlash from Charles is astounding, but the fact he ends it with LOL, which Charles still insists means 'Lots of Love' makes her roll her eyes) and a tight squeeze of his hand she gives him a once over. The colour is back in his face, but the brown circles under his eyes are prominent and the sweat dripping from his forehead isn't exactly imperceptible. 

Amy doesn't want to see him in this state again, and she certainly doesn't ever want to see or hear about him facing down the barrel of a gun ever again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/critique very much welcome and appreciated! Come yell at me on twitter (@royallingstones) or tumblr (@spidermansapphic)!
> 
> AN: The ending "she certainly doesn't ever want to see or hear about him facing down the barrel of a gun ever again." is kind of a call out to the end of Coral Palms Pt. 3! Bc...well, she's gonna have to.


End file.
